


Once More Unto the Breach

by Rethira



Category: Subarashiki Kono Sekai | The World Ends With You
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-20
Updated: 2012-12-20
Packaged: 2017-11-21 17:19:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/600238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rethira/pseuds/Rethira
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Things aren't the same after the UG, but then, no-one really expected them to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Once More Unto the Breach

**Author's Note:**

  * For [stillskies](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stillskies/gifts).



> This really didn't turn out how I was expecting it to, but I hope you like it anyway!

  
_Joshua_

Neku wins.

Perhaps he should be bitter about it, but he isn’t. It’s hard to be bitter when Shibuya glows with Neku’s Imagination.

It’s harder to go and see Neku.

_Neku_

__

He’d hoped Joshua would show. The others had; Beat, Rhyme, even Shiki, in her new-old body. She’d been so embarrassed and had kept ducking her head and Neku just grinned at her and said that she looked great. Hell, even some of the _Reapers_ had turned up, even if they hadn’t come over. Neku had half expected that Joshua would show up late and just bitch about his invite to this little get together getting lost in the mail, _honestly Neku_.

But there’s no Joshua. He doesn’t come, doesn’t even leave a calling card, and Mr H just smiles whenever Neku asks. Neku evens considers swinging by the Dead God’s Pad but the way is blocked, so either Joshua’s ‘beyond’ Neku now, or he doesn’t want to see him.

Because he’s a coward.

_Shiki_

__

The first thing Shiki has do to when she comes back, is relearn how to walk. Eri’s body had a different centre of gravity, although she’d never really noticed when she’d woken up in the UG. That’s probably part of the way it works there though, one of their strange rules of fairness, but back in the RG she’s stuck tripping over her own feet or misjudging a step and the first few days after she gets back, she’s covered in bruises.

She also has to get used to her voice all over again. It had been weird hearing Eri’s voice coming out of her mouth, but she’d gotten used to it pretty quickly all things considered. And now her voice sounds strange to her ears and she has to spend hours on the phone just listening to Eri talk. Eri doesn’t seem to mind, which is something. No-one seems to remember that Shiki died either, but they always look sort of distressed when she asks them about the weeks she was in the UG, so she stops.

She might’ve been scared to go and see Neku if she was still the same person she’d been before the UG. But she isn’t, so she picks up Mr Mew and she goes to Hachiko like they agreed and Beat and Rhyme are already there and Neku smiles when he sees her, and any doubts she had are suddenly gone.

She can’t believe she ever doubted him in the first place.

_Joshua_

__

He may have kept Shibuya as it was, but that doesn’t mean Joshua is any less bored by it. It might not be stagnating anymore, but Joshua is _sick_ of it. Even with Neku’s influence – if Joshua focuses, he can almost see the changes Neku will wreak in Shibuya in the far distant future, but the future isn’t the _now_ and Shibuya isn’t changing _at all_.

Part of Joshua says he wouldn’t be bored if he just went to _see_ Neku, but Joshua’s ignoring that little voice. He drops in on the _other_ Neku, and the other Joshua in fact, and they’re always such a _delight_ to see, even if that Neku freaks out over there being two of him. And while that Neku is quite fascinating in himself – so different to the Neku Joshua knows – he’s still not _Neku_. And going to see Neku is out of the question because- because- because.

Joshua doesn’t know what to say to Neku, so he won’t say anything at all.

Even if Mr H does keep on sending him distressing smiles and talking about _hiring Neku_ and it’s enough to make Joshua stay at a frequency far higher than Neku can ever hope to see. Luckily, now that Neku is alive again – or never having been dead at all perhaps – he has to go to school and such like, which Joshua most emphatically does not envy, but which does mean that he absolutely cannot be going to WildKat in the middle of the day. It’s perfect, even with Mr H laughing like that.

“You’re going to see him one day,” he says knowingly.

“ _Obviously_ ,” Joshua replies. _Just not right now_ , he leaves unsaid.

_Neku_

__

Neku doesn’t know what his parents think about the weeks he spent in the UG – they don’t seem to know he was dead, so he doesn’t mention it – but they are pretty surprised when he starts spending time with Beat, Rhyme and Shiki. He’s never been one for friends, and now he has three – _four_ , even if the fourth won’t show himself.

It’s pretty obvious Joshua’s _around_. There aren’t any birds in Shibuya with feathers that big or that white, and besides which, whenever Neku swings by Ramen Don or a couple of the other shops – once, memorably, Lapin Angelique – they mention seeing his friend. And sure, that could mean Beat or it could mean Shiki – hell, it could mean _Eri_ , and Neku hasn’t even met her yet. But Neku can’t imagine Beat wandering into Lapin Angelique and buying anything, and only Joshua really liked the Pegaso stuff so it’s gotta be him.

Asshole.

And Neku can think that with total impunity, he doesn’t even care if Joshua sees it, because Joshua is the biggest asshole Neku knows and Neku knows Sho Minamimoto. Neku kind of thinks that maybe he should just cut his losses with Joshua – he’s got all the other friends he made in the UG, and Joshua isn’t exactly human anymore anyway – but Neku can’t.

Okay, so Joshua’s an asshole. He’s a murdering asshole, a manipulative bastard, and he’s way too callous. But he’s... he’s _Neku’s_ asshole. Wow, _that_ came out wrong. He’s just... Joshua. He’s Joshua and he’s just as much Neku’s friend as Shiki is, even if it’s all Joshua’s fault that everything happened in the first place, and he did save Neku’s life (quite a few times really, even with the whole killing him in the first place) and-

For such a sarky little shit, he sure does grow on you.

Neku glares at the ceiling. He really has to stop thinking about this. It’s just hard and annoying, because there are reminders _everywhere_ – all his pins in a jar on his shelf, completely useless now, a wardrobe full of clothes his parents don’t remember him buying, Shiki and Mr Mew, the decals near shop windows. He even recognises a bunch of people whenever he’s around town, like Mikoto and the school girls, even if they have no idea who he is.

The UG isn’t letting him forget, so he’s going to get closure instead.

Even if it means trying to stalk a mostly immortal, somewhat omnipotent pseudo-god.

Joshua’s still an asshole though.

  
_Shiki_

She hasn’t admitted it to anyone yet – actually, she might never admit it – but Shiki’s kind of... well. She knows Eri’s body _really_ well. It’s a bit awkward? She did live in it for a bit over a week, so maybe that makes it okay, but then again, Eri doesn’t know that.

“C’mon, stop spacing out,” Eri says, waving her hand in front of Shiki’s face. “You said D+B right?”

“Uh huh, they’ve got a new line out.” Shiki nods. “Maybe a skirt?”

Eri grins back and grabs Shiki’s hand. “You’re the best, you know that?”

It makes Shiki’s heart race a little in her chest when Eri smiles like that, it always has, but now it’s sort of... more. She flushes a bit and hurries after Eri and thinks, not for the first time, that she should introduce her to Neku.

  
_Joshua_

Once it becomes blatantly apparent that Neku is doing his best to stalk someone he cannot actually see, Joshua decides to call it quits and retires to his Pad. Kitaniji stops by to mumble about Neku hanging around outside every so often, but Joshua ignores him. Kitaniji may be his Conductor, but he’s rather a bore and has some truly _terrible_ ideas, especially concerning how to make Shibuya something Joshua won’t just destroy on principle. _Honestly_.

“Bored, bored, bored,” Joshua mutters to himself.

“Well, _I_ know you won’t listen to me,” Joshua replies, “but I think you’re being awfully silly about all this. _Neku’s_ delightful, and you _know_ you wouldn’t be bored if you’d just go to see him.”

Joshua glances over to himself and sighs theatrically. “But I _don’t want to_.” He might pout a bit. So sue him.

Joshua titters and runs his fingers over Joshua’s throne. “I should really get one of these, they look like such _fun_.”

“Sometimes I think Neku was right about me,” Joshua sighs.

“Oh _darling_ , you _know_ he was right,” Joshua replies. “I could use a new Conductor. If _you_ don’t want him....”

Joshua snaps upright at that and glares at himself. “ _Hands off_ ,” he bites out, and his voice twangs with sudden power.

The other Joshua holds up his hands in supplication, and laughs as he fades away.

  
_Neku_

Seeing Eri is weird. He keeps on almost calling her Shiki, and he thinks Shiki knows. But he likes Eri – she’s nice, and sort of protective of Shiki and he’s like, seventy per cent sure she thinks he and Shiki have a thing – _awkward¬_ , to say the least – but she’s really enthusiastic about Shiki’s designs and when Neku says that Shiki is really talented, her face changes a bit, like she’s surprised he even _knows_.

Shiki spends the entire meal ducking her head in embarrassment and picking at her ramen, even though it’s Ken Doi’s special and one of her favourites. Eri won’t let her pay – and pretty obviously resents Neku’s offer to, even though Neku still has more yen than he really knows what to do with – and Shiki colours a bit more over that and Neku thinks back to a week where she was _always_ looking at that picture on her phone and wonders if maybe this is like the Joshua thing.

Well. Not exactly like, but for Shiki, it’s close enough.

“You should say something to her,” Neku mutters while Eri’s paying, and Shiki’s protests are the loudest thing she’s said all afternoon.

Neku thinks he hears a familiar giggle as they’re leaving, but when he turns there’s nothing there, not even a feather.

_Asshole_ , Neku thinks, and yeah, maybe it’s a bit fondly, but it’s not like anyone else will know.

  
_Shiki_

There’s a lot of things left unsaid after the UG. And maybe that’s the way it should be.

Eri waves from by Hachiko, and Shiki hurries over and maybe she smiles a bit because Eri’s got a mini Mr Mew on her bag today, but maybe she smiles because it’s _Eri_.

“More friends, right?”

“Uh huh,” Shiki agrees, before turning around and gesturing to them. “Eri, this is Beat and Rhyme.”

And this is why she’s home.

_Joshua_

__

Joshua sighs and hops down from Hachiko’s head. Neku’s walking across the plaza. His friends are waving to him, and there’s a bit of a smile on his face and Joshua _really_ doesn’t want to do this.

His frequency shifts lower, and he steps out into Neku’s line of sight and waits.


End file.
